Asian Airline Perspectives at this year’s ATM

John Stricklandby John Strickland

In Aviation, Blog.

Asian Airline Perspectives at this year’s ATM

I’m looking forward to a lively discussion with our line up of airline leaders from Asia. We are fortunate to have two of them joining us and there’s plenty to talk about!

Peter Bellew, CEO of Malaysian Airlines (MAS) is leading his company through a major turnaround after several difficult years including the tragic loss of two aircraft in 2014.  He has a background with European Low Cost Carrier, Ryanair so I’ll be asking him how that experience helps him at MAS.

The airline is sharpening up on its product and network and is seeing improved financial performance too.  It saw a 90% load factor for the month of December, the highest for some time. It also has some interesting plans to use the large capacity of its Airbus A380 aircraft for a new subsidiary focussing on Hajj and Umrah religious traffic, definitely something I want to learn more about.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) has a long and proud history and under President and COO Jaime Bautista it has achieved a significant turnaround to restore profitability. It’s going to be fascinating to find out how this has been achieved.  PAL is a key airline in the Gulf, not least due to the significant Filipino diaspora in the region.  It operates Airbus A330’s with an amazing 400 plus seats to meet the demands of this vast community scattered around the globe. Having said that, the airline is reviewing its position in the region so I’ll be asking the reasons behind this and looking to learn more about his vision for the future.

This is going to be an interesting session and I hope I’ve whetted your appetite for some Asian airline flavours!

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John Strickland

John Strickland

Director, John Strickland, is a graduate of the University of York and has held senior positions with a number of airlines including British Caledonian, British Airways, KLMuk and Buzz. John was instrumental in the decision by KLM to establish the low cost operator Buzz and in its selection of new routes. His 40 years of experience have exposed him to the business models of regional, global, legacy and low cost carriers. JLS Consulting was established in 2003 and now serves a growing range of clients including airports, airlines, investors and those whose businesses require strategic insight on and advisory services concerning the air transport sector. John regularly devises and chairs panel discussions and interviews senior executives at industry conferences and events. Media work is undertaken for numerous global media organisations including the BBC, CNN, Sky, Al Jazeera, and business specialists Bloomberg and CNBC. John also contributes to a wide range of respected written publications including the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires, Business Week, The New York Times, Gulf News, Reuters and AFP.

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